


Five Times Percy Broke His Phone and The One Time It Wasn't His Fault

by awanderingmuse



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: 5+1, Customer Service, Fluff, are they dating, repeated phone death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:09:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29524128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awanderingmuse/pseuds/awanderingmuse
Summary: As punishment for blowing up the Legions armory Leo is sentenced to work in phone repair for the camps. Normally this wouldn't be too bad,  phones these days are pretty bulletproof. Unfortunately, he hasn't thought of the extraordinary circumstances Poseidon’s favored son tends to regularly find himself in. This is one battle the Son of Hephaestus is determined to win.  Olympus helped him.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	Five Times Percy Broke His Phone and The One Time It Wasn't His Fault

#### I.

Leo could not imagine a worse punishment than customer service. It was physically impossible, honestly, in his humble fiery opinion some light torture would be worse. Okay maybe real torture is worse than forced customer service. If it was though it was a close thing.

The damned phone rings in the small phone shop in New Rome and Leo picks it up tiredly. “Stoll’s Secure Satellite Systems, maker of phones just as strong as you are. This is Leo speaking. How may I help you?”

“Um, hi.” A voice that sounds suspiciously like Lacy from the Aphrodite cabin says uncertainty. If the speaker wouldn’t pick it up Leo would be banging his head against the counter repeatedly. Leo was in week one of his four week punishment working at the phone shop and Lacy had already called twice.

“How can I help you?” he asks again just knowing that it was going to be something stupid. It was always something stupid.  
“My phone isn’t working.” Lacy says following it up with, “I think it’s dead.”

Leo takes offense to all these people implying that his phones die so easily. He may not run the company that sells them but he did help Annabeth create the final product in the first product. Implying that your phone died after you dropped it was a direct insult to his workman ship.

“Well, Lacy,” Leo says patiently. She didn’t say her name but Leo knows what Lacy sounds like. “It can’t be dead because it looks like you’re talking to me on it. Can you tell me what issue you’re having exactly?”

Lacy makes an embarrassed choking noise and says, “I can’t read my stories.”

“Okay, that sounds like maybe you aren’t connected to the internet.” Leo says ignoring exactly what kind of stories Lacy was referring to. 

As he walked Lacy through the basic steps of reconnecting the shop door opened. Leo looked up to see Percy walking in looking a bit sheepish. Nico was behind him and the smirk alone was enough to tell him he was in for trouble. 

Leo and Annabeth had taken a lot of time with Percy’s phone. In a way Leo thought it was Annabeth’s way to make amends for not being with Percy. Not that there was really anything to make amends for. It probably didn’t matter. The point was that Percy’s phone was probably the best out of any demigods. Leo had no idea what could happen to put that look on the Son of Poseidon’s face.

They finally get Lacy back on the internet. She accidentally tapped the wi-fi icon on her phone at some point turning it off. Leo pointedly ignores her comments about how happy she is to have her stories back, wishes her a good day.

Leo turns to his friends who are browsing the new models of phones. Leo’s not sure why they both have specialized phones that are way better than what’s on display here.

“Hey guys how can I help you?” Leo says breezily. He may be stuck in customer service mode but he’s not going to greet his actual friends with the stupid tagline.

“Aw man.” Nico says giving Percy a disappointed look that has to be flirting. It has to be, except that Percy seemed completely oblivious to it. “You said he’d say the thing.”

Percy shrugs. “He did the first time I came in with Dakota.”

“Yeah, that was because you were with Dakota.” Leo says. “I’m not putting on the front for you two. So, are you here for a reason or are you just trying to harass me.”

“Just trying to harass you.” Nico says grinning just as Percy says, “I broke my phone.”

Leo was certainly feeling harassed. Percy had to be pranking him, his phone was unbreakable. He says as much, only to be presented with what indeed appears to be a broken phone. The screen is shattered, the casing dented and warped in such a way that there are gaps between the case and screen. That wouldn’t be a problem except that the phone is also covered in mud. Mud that has clearly gotten into the hardware as well. 

“How?” Leo asks totally flabbergasted. Percy’s phone was indestructible. 

“Well, I was giving Nico a lift from his work in the Underworld.” Percy says scratching behind his ear like he might be a bit embarrassed. Of course, everyone had noted exactly how much Percy and Nico had been hanging out.

On the rare occasion that one of them wasn’t around it was a topic of hot debate among their friends. Still, no one had any evidence that there was anything going on between the two. Maybe Leo could use this very unfortunate incident to get some information.

“What did you do hurl it off the aqueduct?” Leo asks skeptically. The body of Percy’s phone was made to handle being trampled by a minotaur. 

“We were flying on Blackjack.” Percy provides sheepishly. 

Leo definitely gets the image but now he’s getting mad. “You hurled it off a pegasus! Why?”

Now Nico is snickering behind Percy. They’re of a height now, though Nico might be a little taller, but slighter as well. Thinking about Nico and Percy led to thinking about weather or not there was a thing going on between him.

Not conductive to the moral outrage that he was supposed to be feelign because Percy thought it was necessary to hurl his very expensive very difficult to make phone from a flying pegasus into a muddy puddle.

“I didn’t hurl it!” Percy exclaims indignant at the accusation of responsibility. “I was trying to text Hazel that we’d be home soon and dropped it.”

The slip of ‘we’d be home’ soon was very interesting because it meant either that Percy considered Hazle’s apartment home, or Nico considered Percy’s home his own. Still Leo knew that if he actually asked they’d evade, because that’s what they’ve been doing since Nico and Percy started hanging out a whole lot more.

“Into a puddle.” He says with disbelief Finally grabbing the phone and working on pulling it apart. This was not going to be a simple fix. He could fix it, but it wasn’t going to be simple.  
“I tried to catch it.” Percy says rubbing the back of his neck. Behind him Nico was very pointedly not laughing. The amusement barely concealing a look that meant they had to be dating. Either that or both demigods were completely blind to the fact that Aphrodite was clearly interfering.

“Okay.” Leo says thoughtfully turning his attention back to the broken mess of a phone in his hands.

#### II.

Leo takes a moment to breath in the cool evening air. Before him is a sight to be reckoned with. The legion on and surrounding a lake trying out his new tool to detect stong sets of power underneath the ocean. He was still working on how to make the system be able to tell friend from foe. But it was a start.

Percy was swimming around the lake frantically avoiding attacks while the Legion tried to catch him. It was honestly fun to watch. The huff of breath next to him tells Leo that a certain Son of Hades was enjoying the show as well. 

Though Leo was of the opinion that it was for entirely different reasons. Leo was there to watch his creation succeed. Nico was there to watch Percy not that Nico would ever admit it. Not even to his sister, which often left Hazel pouting at Leo late into the night. 

It was part of why this was a mystery Leo had to solve. If only Nico was just a little more into small talk. But, he wasn’t content to sit and watch while Leo took notes on the progression of the battle. 

Nico was watching too, but from the other side. Which, perhaps notes from both points would be good.

“Can you see Percy?” Leo asks. It’s an art Nico has perfected, from quests according to both Percy and Nico. Leo wasn’t quite sure it wasn’t something more. Something son of deathish. Something like always knowing where Percy is because his dark eyes watch for the spark of his very soul.

But that was sappy and dumb and didn’t have to think about it. The point was Nico knew exactly where Percy was even when he sunk to the bottom of the lake. Leo did not. Leo knew how his machine should be moving though, and so he would have a better idea of how well it worked, even in the face of victory.

“Hey when Percy dives, you can still tell where he is. Right?” Leo asks trying to sound offhanded and not curious about how that trick works, much less why. If he sounds curious Nico will evade and Leo actually wants his help even more than he wants to know how it works. 

“Yeah.” Nico says suspiciously. Of course the guy is suspicious of everything and everyone all the time. It was kind of sad.

“Good, I keep losing him. You’ll be my Percy spotter.” Leo says easily. “We’re both looking for every time the machine locks on to Percy. Here’s some paper note the time and the area in the lake, that way we can compare notes later.”

They work until the first phase is over. The second phase ends shockingly fast. 

Before the Legion had been searching for Percy while only took evasive maneuvers. Now Percy was allowed to fight back. In his own element and against an army that did not train in or around water very often Percy was unstoppable. 

“Yeah!” Nico yells, pumping the air with his fist when the final group of Roman soldiers get knocked out of the fight area. A way to track loosing soldiers without having Percy murder people with ice spikes or something similar. 

Leo tries not to compare the wide grin on Nico’s face to an Aphrodite Cabin girl’s when her crush won a game of capture the flag. It’s really really hard not to though. Not when he looks pretty much exactly like that just less pretty and more dark and mysterious. 

He has Nico help him pack up his stuff for analysis when he gets back to whatever spare room the Legion has put him up in this time. 

A few minutes later Percy is out of the water and talking with Reyna. Shoring up battle strategy Leo is sure. He heads down to join the discussion Nico in tow. Nico has some of the numbers they’ll need when the conversation turns to the machine, after all.

“Hey.” Percy smiles from under the towel he was using to dry his hair and it’s like the sun coming out from behind a cloud. Nico returns the smile reflecting Percy’s light. If just knows it’s another sign that they’re an item but he needs concrete proof if he’s going to convince everyone else of it. 

“Good fight, though you left your right side open as always.” Nico says playfully, griping at his probably boy friend. If only Leo could prove it.

Percy grins which is how Leo knows he’s about to say something purposefully dumb. “I was leaving it open on purpose, to give Reyna a handicap.”

By the look on Reyna’s face it would be Percy who needed the handicap next time they sparred.

Nico just rolls his eyes. “Sure sure. So, lets review those numbers about that machine so that Leo has his precious data.”  
It’s as their talking, Nico leaning in to Percy’s space as they review schematics that Percy reaches into his pocket for something and his eyes go comically wide.

“Oh no.” Percy says quietly drawing what he’s found out of his pocket. The looks on his face is clearly upset.

Leo is absolutely horrified to find out that the cause of Percy’s distress appears to be his newly fixed phone. His completely waterlogged newly fixed phone.

“Percy.” Leo finds himself growling as the phone is set on the table. The battle lasted for over two hours. No amount of rice was going to fix it. “Why was that in your pocket.”

Percy visibly gulps. “I forgot?”

Leo is quiet. If he isn’t quiet he’s going to yell. The legion would frown upon him yelling at a war hero, even if he is also a war hero.

Once Leo is calm enough that he isn’t going to scream he tells Percy to hand over the phone and marches towards the Stolls shop trying to figure out how to build a truly Percy proof phone.

#### III.

Leo is telling Travis and Connor about his Percy proof phone when the demigod himself walks into the store. “Speak of the Devil.” Connor says excitedly. “Why don’t you show us that new phone Leo made you! I know you get the friend discount from the creator himself but if we can get the plans to mass produce to provide something that can survive your lifestyle...well that would be a huge selling point.”

Percy blushes and Leo feels his blood pressure begin to rise at that alone. There is no way Percy has broken his phone this time. It could fall from an airplane or go with Percy on a scuba trip to a coral reef. It is fireproof, shatter proof, mud proof. Leo tried to think of everything this time.

Except that clearly is untrue. The phone that Percy produces has a crack on the screen that wouldn’t be a huge problem in itself except the cracked glass has scorch marks on the screen material beneath. The casing is also scorched, even though Leo specifically made sure it could handle fire.

With this much damage on the outside of an indestructible phone Leo knew he would be devastated to find what the inside looked like. He almost just wanted to scrap the whole thing and try again. However, he’d need to find out what happened first. That way he could make sure it didn’t happen again.

With Travis and Connor present he couldn’t even swear like he wanted to. Which oh did he want to. The phone looked like Percy had put into a microwave for fun. Leo was absolutely going to explode if the phone was anywhere near a microwave when this happened.

“So, um, there was kind of a training accident.” Percy says self consciously. 

Leo was sure that that was not what happened. At least not in the way most demigods think of training. He’d bet the contents of Bunker Nine on it. 

He gets his explanation before he even opens the casing of the phone. Though opening the phone does provide visual confirmation that what Percy claims next is true.

“So, Nico and I were practicing with Jason.” Percy explains reluctantly. Even though he’s overwhelmed by the technological disaster before Leo makes mental note of the phrasing. Nico and I sounded a lot like couple phrasing in Leo’s opinion. Something to think on further later. 

“We were bantering.” The embarrassed Son of Poseidon continues. 

“Arguing. You and Jason were arguing.” Nico is quick to correct his might be boyfriend. 

“We were disagreeing a little.” Percy says like he’s trying to bargain Nico down but also not end up on the couch so to speak. 

“Right. You were arguing.” Travis prompts, having hung around during the conversation. Unlike his slightly less nosy brother who had the decency to at least pretend to have turned his attention to taking inventory.

It’s amusing when Nico smirks in triumph and Percy goes pink.

“Anyway.” The single word comes out of Percy’s mouth sharply. “We may have gotten a bit carried away in our sparing.”

“They were using powers.” Nico is quick to add. The smile says he’s enjoying throwing Percy under the bus. 

“We were using powers.” Percy corrects making sure that Nico is in trouble too. Leo notes that Nico doesn’t look the least bit abashed by this revelation.

“Okay.” Leo says levelly. He doesn’t need a play by play of Percy and Jason’s overly enthusiastic argument practice. That is a common occurrence that everyone knows about. He just needs to know what happened to the phone. 

Leo has a sneaking suspicion as to the answer but he needs to know for sure. He’s going to kill both Percy and Jason though if it turns out he’s correct.

“So, we’re arguing about the best way to kill a Minotaur and it was getting a bit out of hand.” Percy continues finally getting to the part Leo needs to know.

“It’s going to take a week to drain the training grounds. Not to mention the wind damage.” Nico chimes in gleefully.

At least the Leo isn’t going to be the only one with a headache for the next few days. He’s heard enough though and says, “Jason shot lighting at you, didn’t he?”

“Well yeah.” Percy says awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck again. Then adds brightly “But the phone took the brunt of it, so I’m fine.” 

By this time both Travis and Connor are practically in stitches from laughing. One is gasping something about it being impossible to Percy proof a phone. Leo highkey hates them both.

Leo just sighs and picks the phone back up to take it to the back to work on. “Alright Percy, let me take this to the back and figure out how to lightning proof it.” 

He can’t believe that is an actual sentence he actually has to say. Percy smiles brightly. “Really you think you can fix it.”

“I told you I’d make you a phone that will last and I’m going to do it.” Leo says, the words probably sound a bit more threatening than they should. But he’s going to get this project done correctly if it kills him gods damn it. “I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

Before anyone can say anything else Leo does not stomp to the back to get to work.

#### IV.

It’s starting to drive Leo crazy, the continued ambiguity relating to exactly what Nico and Percy are to each other. Not even Hazel seems to actually know, though she too is beginning to be suspicious that something more than best friend ship is going on between the two demigods. 

At this point the real question is are they friends that kiss sometimes or have they actually decided to date like everyone's been hoping they’ll do seemingly forever. There’s no good answer to the question. Especially when most of Leo’s time is spent in the Stoll’s phone shop. 

He did kind of blow up the Legion’s Armory doing something that Reyna had told him specifically not to do, but still! That didn’t mean he should be put in Customer Service forever. If the Stoll's kept working him he was going to demand that they pay him!

The bell dings and Leo sighs deeply in his heart. Never out loud of course that would be rude to whatever customer just walked through the door. He should probably look up from the phone he’s working on to figure out who is here actually. Then he’ll help them, and then he’ll demand pay!

He looks up to see Nico standing awkwardly by the door like he doesn’t quite know what to do now that he’s here. A cursory glance makes it clear that he’s here post battle. Though he’s taken the time to change clothes, there’s a look in his eyes and an alarming number of scrapes and bruises that tell the tale all on their own.

“Hey man, what can I do for you?” Leo prompts. It’s a tick in the definitely dating column that the first thing he noticed about Nico wasn’t that he was clearly off battle but that Percy wasn’t with him.

Nico seems to shake himself of whatever is going on in his head to create the uncharacteristic hesitancy and comes to the counter. “Uh, I’ve got Percy’s phone with me.” He says, his mouth doing something that is supposed to be an amused grin but is far too strained to be anything but a wince. 

Leo wants to say no. If Percy has managed to break his damn phone again Leo honestly doesn’t care anymore. The other demigod can fix it himself. But Nico seems so down about the fact that Percy’s phone is broken that Leo has to do something.

“Sure, what happened?” He finds his mouth saying even though he absolutely dreads the answer. 

“Well um-” Nico slides his backpack over his shoulder and begins digging through it. Presumably searching for the phone. It doesn’t take long for him to find. Probably because it’s not difficult to locate the giant Minotaur horn in his bag.

The phone is speared on the tip of the horn like it’s some kind of thick windy skewer. Leo has no idea how they managed to do that to the poor phone. He’s not sure if he wants to murder Percy or the Minotaur more for the damage. 

“If it makes you feel better the phone probably saved his life again.” Nico says handing both the phone and horn over.

“I’m making him better armor.” Leo grumbles, taking the phone. Jackson seriously needs to stop using his phone as a life-saving device. Seriously!

Nico smiles, actually smiles, and says, “Yeah, I’d appreciate that.” in a way that has to mean they’re dating. They are dating. Right? There’s got to be a way to get Nico to spill the beans, surely they don’t mean to be torturing their friends with this extended game of are they aren’t they.

“So, why isn’t your boy here to hand over his phone himself?” Leo decides that teasing is the best way to get Nico to admit they’re dating.

Except that Nico doesn’t so much as blush at Leo’s insinuation. He just bites his lip worriedly and says, “The phone saved his life but it didn’t rid him of his fatal flaw. When the Minotaur turned on me he got himself thrown into a pole trying to wrestle with it.” 

Leo wasn’t even there but he can feel that as if he’d been the one thrown. “Ouch, that’s terrible.”

“Yeah.” Nico says shaking his head. “I had to twist his arm to get him to go get it checked out. Apparently it’s only bruised ribs.”

Leo and Nico both roll their eyes at that as if Percy were with them and making the argument. Nico looks so down about Percy’s injuries that Leo can’t bring himself to tease the Son of Hades about his possible relationship any more. Operation Are They Dating will have to wait for another day. 

“Well, tell him that he doesn’t get his phone back unless you tell me he’s following the medics orders.” Leo says sincerely. 

Nico smiles, twice in ten minutes, and says “I’ll be sure to let him know. I should go make sure he’s not causing too much trouble.” 

“You do that. I’ll just make sure this is fixed once Percy is put back together.” Leo says gesturing to the phone.

Nico thanks him and leaves. Leo finds himself staring at the door far longer than he should. Nico implied that he’s going back to Percy. That he has some influence over weather or not Percy chooses to be dumb. That means their dating. It has too.

#### V.

Leo is never going to be free of customer service. He finally finished the punishment detail only for the Stoll brothers to offer him a dual salary in both dramacha and US dollars that he simply could not refuse. 

It was nice to get paid for his work finally, but he really would like to not have to deal with people when they are at their worst. Or just their most annoying. 

Right now is a great example. He was just closing up the shop when Percy walks in with Nico. Well limps is probably a better description but that is not the point. The point is that Percy is once again in his shop with a presumably broken phone.

Leo is sick and tired of Percy walking into the phone shop. His phone is fall proof, waterproof, lightning proof, and stab proof. What else could the Son of Poseidon possibly ask for!

The look on Percy’s face tells him he’s about to find out and Leo is not happy about it. The Stoll’s are going to have to forgive him for the waspish tone in his voice when he snaps, “Okay let’s see it.”

Percy doesn’t produce anything, just crosses his arms and frowns. “You said the phone was waterproof.”

Leo has been dealing with demigods complaining all day because Apollo crashed his sun chariot into the communications center in Camp Halfblood taking the secured lines down for several hours. He personally couldn’t do anything about it since Cabin Nine had the situation under control. That wasn’t good enough for them though.

All the constant calling succeeded in doing was putting Leo in a very bad mood. He wasn’t going to let Percy yell at him, because Percy found a new way to destroy his gods cursed phone. 

“It is!” Leo exclaims, throwing up his hands. “Percy just give me the phone.”

“He can’t.” Nico seems to think allowing them to yell at each other won’t help the situation. He’s probably right, but some yelling might help Leo relieve the stress from the day. 

“What do you mean can’t?” Leo snaps. Percy’s phone should be indestructible. He’s designed it to be that way five times now. 

"It exploded in my pocket." Percy says flatly. “The mermen I was with had to pull the glass out of my hip with tweezers. I still get really sore when I walk too long.”

That is a lot of information for Leo to process but he's not a mechanical genius for nothing. He hates the picture being painted though.

"I designed that to go as deep as a nuclear submarine Percy!" Leo cries. The desire to bash his head against the counter is higher than it’s been in days. “Why were you deeper than submarines go!”

“I went to visit Dad.” Percy says like that’s obvious, even though it really isn’t. Most demigods don’t pop into their godly parents domains for a nice chat. Percy doesn’t seem to get it.

A quick glance at Nico says that he won’t be any help either. Of course if Percy goes into the ocean occasionally to help, Nico practically lives in the Underworld part time.

“Do you know how much deeper than 1,000 feet you had to go for your phone to explode? How are you even alive.” Leo is far past banging his head against the counter, he’s just going to cry.

Percy shrugs he’s seemed to have forgotten that his phone wasn’t fully waterproof and that had made him angry. Or maybe he realizes there’s more at play here. “I mean I’ve gone to some pretty deep parts before? Not like the bottom of the Trench deep, but I’ve definitely gone past the sunlight before.”

Leo has a headache. He wonders if Percy has a headache from all the pressure on his brain when he’s 3,000 feet deep in the ocean. 

“Fine. I’ll rebuild the phone.” Leo sighs. That’s really all there is left. “I’d recommend not taking it on super deep dives though. Okay.”

“I always leave my phone behind when I’m in the Underworld.” Nico adds helpfully. “Reception is terrible down there anyway.”

Percy nudges The Son of Hades with his shoulder and says, “You leave your phone behind most of the time.”

“I get on fine without it.” Nico retorts. ”Unlike some people.”

Leo decides to steer the bickering probably boyfriends out of the shop. He has a phone to build after all.

#### +1

It’s finals week and Leo had never been so happy. Even with his own classes weighing him down. For the first time in a month of customer service he hasn’t seen Percy in the Stoll’s phone shop. The shockingly destructive demigod hasn’t had time to do anything unspeakable to his phone. It’s amazing. 

“Hey, Leo, it’s your favorite customer coming this way!” Travis shouts. “What do you think Percy did this time?”

Leo falls forward on the desk. His forehead cradled in his hands. If he can’t see Percy maybe he won’t have to help him. Percy’s phone can now go 5,000 ft below sea level. It can fall from a plane or be struck by freaking lightning. It cannot be stabbed by pretty much anything and can be in water indefinitely. What else has Percy come up with to destroy a phone that was built to be indestructible the first time around. He’s afraid to ask.

The bell above the door rings but Leo refuses to raise his head. He’s going to stare at this desk until Percy takes his phone somewhere else. If he doesn’t look at the phone he can’t fix it. Provided Percy even has something to hand over.

“Hey man!” Travis says, reminding Leo suddenly that Travis and Percy were very often in cahoots about things that would give the other cabin leaders a headache. “Is it your phone again? Did you find another way to make sure Leo keeps getting a paycheck?” 

Percy has the decency to sound contrite at least. “It really wasn’t my fault.”

“Oh, come on!” Travis says far too gleeful for someone who’s supposed to care about Leo’s suffering. “Regale us with the tale? Did you drop in the Styx? Hurl it at a Gorgon snack stand from Olympus? Tell us of your heroic deeds?”

Leo raises his head to glare at Travis. It means he has to engage in the conversation but it’s worth it to see the teasing light in Travis’ eyes dim for just a moment as he remembers Leo could set the entire store on fire at any moment. 

“I didn’t do anything.” Percy says again. This time a bit more forcefully. “It was Nico’s fault.” 

Leo takes a moment to realize that Nico is blushing. “And you what, dropped it in a wormhole?”  
Nico is definitely blushing now. Even more interesting, is the tinge of pink on Percy’s cheeks as well. Suddenly Leo is very vested in the conversation. Sure he’s going to have to fix the twice cursed phone again, but if it means he gets an answer to if they are dating or not Leo will say it’s all been worth it.

“Not quite.” Nico grumbles staring at his feet.

“He got impatient. Is what happened.” Percy says, he’s still blushing but now he’s smiling fondly too. Leo is nearly vibrating with excitement. He’s finally about to find out what’s been going on between the two sons of the Big Three. It’s a romantic something. He’s sure of it. 

Leo raises an eyebrow. “You do know you can just visit right? You don’t have to make up reasons to come here.”

“Leo I love you man but I was not impatient to come to the phone shop.” Nico somehow manages to sound both put upon and even more embarrassed.

“Boo!” Travis says in a way that sounds suspiciously like a catcall. The embarrassment coming off the two demigods is a physical thing. It’s time for Leo to crack this mystery wide open.

“It’s because you were making out right?” Leo says gleefully. If he gets the answer to the question that’s been plaguing the Seven for weeks right now it will make every rendition of Percy’s phone worth it. 

Percy looks to the heavens like he’s asking the gods for something. Though Percy only does that when there’s no other options and the situation isn’t that bad. “Ugh. Just, look, it’s dead.”

This time the phone looks fine, just like it’s been switched off. So, whatever happened Leo has at least gotten to a point that it can’t be physically broken. Success!

“Nu-uh.” Leos says grinning. Despite the fact that Percy is in his shop with a broken phone, again, this is the best day ever. “Not until you tell me exactly what happened.” 

“Yes!” Travis cheers from the register. See, Leo even has boss back up. The mystery gets solved right now. 

“It didn’t like Shadow Travel. Okay.” Nico cuts in. He looks annoyed, which probably isn’t good for Leo’s continued existence. But when has Leo ever acted in the interest of his continued existence?

“And why did it have to try Shadow Travel?”

Nico turns completely red. Leo’s not really trying to make Nico say it. He understands that would be a cruel move because of gods being jerks to the guy in the past. However, the look on Percy’s face tells him his strategy is impeccable. 

“Cause he correctly figured we shouldn’t be making out in the middle of the street.” Percy snaps, shoving the phone towards Leo. “Happy?”

“Incredibly.” Leo finally takes the phone from Percy. “Seriously, I’m glad you both are happy.”

He cracks the case open to get inside the phone and finds that there, isn’t anything wrong with it. Not visually at least. Probably a software problem then. Though he’s not sure how Shadow Travel messed with the software.

“Nico, bring me your phone too.” Leo says while he gathers up the pieces to head to the back. “When I’m done with Percy’s phone I’ll fix yours too. That way you can talk to each other when you’re on quests.”

Nico rolls his eyes visibly choosing to drop his annoyance with Leo’s prying. “Fine.” 

“You’re welcome. Now go make out or whatever you two do in your spare time. I’ll let you know when this is ready.” 

“And I’ll let you know when I’m done telling everyone your good news.” Travis crows. 

Percy glares at Travis. Something the Son of Hermes seems entirely impervious too. Which is shocking, Percy is terrifying when he’s glaring. “You’re the worst, Travis.”

“I know.” Travis says, shooing the two demigods out of the store. As he promised Leo takes the phone to the back. He might need to call Annabeth in on this one. He’s not sure where to start in divining the mechanics of Shadow Travel.

**Author's Note:**

> [I HAVE A TUMBLR, CHECK ME OUT!!!](https://awanderingmuse-fandom.tumblr.com/)


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